Eggert v. Working’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently April 2012
2 federal appellate · 14 state decisions — followed in 11 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 19 Cal. 3d 530 - Hasson v. Ford Motor Co. · Kaatz v. State · 66 Wis. 2d 563 - White v. Lunder · Nelson v. Busby · Ross v. Cuthbert
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We believe that it is just to apply the proportion of fault of the injured spouse to the other’s damages for loss of consortium. The fact that each spouse is equal and independent and suffers a personal loss when the other is injured, does not alter the fact that the basis for recovery for loss of consortium is “interference with the continuance of a healthy and happy marital life” and “injury to the conjugal relation.” Schreiner [v. Fruit ] 519 P.2d [462] at 465, 466 [(Alaska 1975)]. As we recognized in Kaatz [v. State] 540 P.2d [1037] at 1047 [(Alaska 1975)], the loss resulting from an accident is best distributed among those whose negligence caused it in proportion to the fault of each of them. If this ideal were applied to this case Eggert would bear 85% of Helen Working’s loss, and Donavon Working 15%. It is true, technically, that this result is not achieved by reducing, as we do here, Helen Working’s recovery, and the amount that Eggert must pay, by 15%. It is, however, very close to the same thing, because the evidence is clear that the Workings are in effect, if not in law, an economic unit. That, it seems to us, is likely to be the case in most instances where substantial loss of consortium damages are suffered.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Before contributory negligence was replaced by comparative negligence most commentators criticized the application of the bar of contributory negligence to a claim for loss of consortium, see [W. Prosser, Handbook of the Law of Torts § 125, at 892-93 (4th ed.1971) ]; they did so almost as unanimously as the courts applied it. See e.g., Ross v. Cuthbert, 239 Or. 429 , 397 P.2d 529, 530 (1964). At least one court, acting in a contributory negligence jurisdiction, has recently allowed full recovery for loss of consortium despite the contributory negligence of the physically injured spouse. Handeland v. Brown, 216 N.W.2d 574, 579 (Iowa 1974). We are, however, aware of no general criticism of application of the partial defense of comparative negligence to claims for loss of consortium.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“"The fact that each spouse is equal and independent and suffers a personal loss when the other is injured, does not alter the fact that the basis for recovery for loss of consortium is `interference with the continuance of a healthy and happy marital life' and `injury to the conjugal relation.' [Citation.] * * * The loss resulting from an accident is best distributed among those whose negligence caused it in proportion to the fault of each of them." Eggert v. Working (Alaska 1979), 599 P.2d 1389, 1391 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.